


Of catnip, feathers and blonde crows

by DieroteRosine



Series: Kuroo Week 2020 [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cat Ears, Cat Haiba Lev, Cat Kozume Kenma, Cat Kuroo Tetsurou, Cat Yaku Morisuke, Cat/Human Hybrids, Crow Hinata Shouyou, Crow Tsukishima Kei, Day 7: Catboy, Fluff, M/M, Nekoma vs Karasuno, Trainingsmatch, Tsukishima lets Kuroo suffer, Volleyball, kuroo week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26062168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieroteRosine/pseuds/DieroteRosine
Summary: “Say, Setter-kun, don't you think that the structure in your team would be much better if Megane-kun loosened up a bit?"Kageyama made a face as if Kuroo had just asked about the fourth root from 1340 and opened his mouth a few times without a sound leaving him, while Kuroo nodded slowly before answering his question himself.“Yes, that would be better, because how should a team function effectively if not all members contribute equally. So it would be good if we both, together with Chibi-chan, could get your grumpy blonde to open up."For a brief moment Kageyama seemed to want to question his words, apparently not fully understanding why exactly Kuroo was interested in this, but then shrugged again and nodded."Sounds fine. But as I said - Stingyshima stays away from us outside of the volleyball field, so how is that supposed to work?""That, my dear friend, I'll explain to you right away.", Kuroo grinned.________Kuroo, a cat-hybrid, has take a liking in a very tall, snarky crow-boy and is determined to finally reveal the other's wings. But somehow the crow won't let this happen.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kozume Kenma, Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Series: Kuroo Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883374
Comments: 7
Kudos: 181
Collections: Kuroo Week 2020





	Of catnip, feathers and blonde crows

**Author's Note:**

> I made it through the end - this will be my last work for the current Kuroo-Week :)
> 
> Since I mentioned some cat/owl and crow-types in my story, here are my takes on the players and their specific hybrid:
> 
> [Kuroo: Maine Coone Cat](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/black-cat-breeds-maine-coon-1563295981.jpg?crop=0.6666666666666666xw:1xh;center,top&resize=768:*)   
>  [Tsukishima: Great-billed Crow](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Macrocorax_woodfordi.jpg/259px-Macrocorax_woodfordi.jpg)   
>  [Kenma: Balinese Cat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Old-Style_Balinese_Cat.png)   
>  [Yaku: Bengal Cat](https://einfachtierisch.de/media/cache/article_teaser/cms/2015/03/bengal-katze-krankheiten-shutterstock-Shvaygert-Ekaterina.jpg?595617)   
>  [Lev: Russian Blue Cat](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/12/03/19/09/russian-blue-4670775_960_720.jpg)   
>  [Bokuto: Long-eared Owl](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Waldohreule_in_freier_Wildbahn.jpg/266px-Waldohreule_in_freier_Wildbahn.jpg)   
>  [Akaashi: Tawny Owl](https://www.wesser.de/uploads/pics/Promotionjobs-Promotion-2016.jpg)

Kuroo leaned his back against the railing in front of the school and yawned several times as he waited for Kenma, who was five minutes overdue.  
It was certainly completely irrelevant that the new Monster Hunter was released yesterday evening and Kenma had probably spent the whole night fighting his character through the fictional world level by level.  
  
In the distance the school bell rang for the second time and Kuroo raised his eyebrows in annoyance - his best friend had exactly 10 minutes before the first lesson began, so the chances were rather slim that Kenma would still make it.  
With one more look at his phone, Kuroo shuffled yawning towards the classroom, slumping tiredly on his seat.  
  
Yaku in front of him tilted his chair back and put both arms on Kuroo's table, an amused, teasing grin on his face as he chirped:  
"Well, did your lover dump you for a 2D monster hunter again?"  
Kuroo nudged Yaku forward, which he acknowledged with a playful, indignant breath.  
"Shut up, Yakkun. You know Kenma's into chibi-kun, so save your breath. And besides -”, he grimaced smugly, “haven't I just seen our future Ace storm out of the room? Trouble in Paradise? "  
He was just able to duck under Yaku's blow, laughing, when their teacher entered the room and Yaku gave him one last warning look before they had to leave themselves alone for at least the next few hours.  
  
During the break, as always, all the players from the Nekoma volleyball club sat together behind the school and talked about their imminent trip to Sendai, Lev was waving around excitedly, the argument with Yaku had apparently long been forgotten when Kuroo suddenly got hit in the face by a bushy tail.   
He wiped the annoying body part indistinctly aside and glared at Lev.  
"Oya Lev! That was the third time this week that I had your tail in my face, I thought you were slowly getting that under control, you stupid cat!"  
  
The tall, gray-haired boy squealed in surprise and his cat ears, which had suddenly appeared, twitched nervously as he grabbed his tail and tried to stuff it into his pants.  
Yaku sighed and grumpily started to help his partner, who commented the sudden touch with a low squeak.  
Next to them, Yamamoto had happily grabbed his cell phone and started filming the whole scene, because it was mostly a picture for the gods when the really small Yaku tried to stuff Levs more than a pompous tail into his pants and got hit in the face several times during the whole ordeal.   
  
Lev had always said that he "couldn't control his tail yet", but Kuroo was sure that he knew very well what he was doing when the tail brushed gently over Yaku's neck at such moments.  
  
The third graders among them, Kai, Yaku and Kuroo himself, were meanwhile able to suppress their own transformation as long as necessary in order not to attract unnecessary public attention.  
Even if it was perfectly normal that animal hybrids had settled everywhere in Tokyo and the surrounding area, there were still enough people who reacted indignantly to a boy with cat ears and a tail.  
For this very reason, Kuroo only showed himself in his animal form in extreme emergencies.  
But in some cases of special excitement or joy, his black cat ears still flickered out from between his hair from time to time and earned him the eternal teasing of Yaku.  
  
The little third grader was a Bengal hybrid and so far Kuroo had only seen his spotted ears once - this particular, "earth-shattering" event, according to Yamamoto, had occurred the day Lev joined their team.  
The entire team had been teasing Yaku for weeks how it took exactly one look at Lev, before the wildly spotted ears suddenly appeared on his head and his tail whipped back and forth so wildly that he had Inouka swept off his legs.  
Since then it has been Kuroo's greatest happiness on earth to provoke Yaku until the boy lost his composure again and presented his little fluffy ears to them.  
  
Lev turned out to be the exact opposite, the Russian Blue mix seemed to be unable to control his powers in any imaginable situation and so it happened that he sometimes transformed even in the middle of a jump block and landed on his own tail.  
Much to the general amusement of the team, including Yaku, who had a soft spot for the tall boy, but was without exception the first to laugh at him when something happened to him.

Some weird kind of love-hate relationship, at least that's what Kai had called it.  
  
Right now, Yaku gave Lev a blow to the back of the head when the gray-haired giant had almost immediately freed his tail from his pants, after a fight with it for the past ten minutes and that exact tail had hit Shibayama on the nose.  
  
In addition to consistently good game results, their team also had the special feature that each of their members was a cat hybrid.  
At some point it had become a habit that all cat hybrids in the area went to Nekoma as a matter of course and even if it was difficult in many ways, it also made some things a lot easier.  
The teachers showed themselves to be far more insightful when a student again missed class because he had changed unintentionally – another great opportunity for Kenma to miss classes like he wanted to, simply burying himself in his videogames.  
  
In addition to Nekoma, Kuroo knew there were only five other schools in Japan that almost exclusively had hybrid teams, and two of them came from Tokyo.  
Unmistakable and feared on the pitch, the _Fukurodani owls_ have faced Nekoma for years and Kuroo counted their team captain Bokuto, a long-eared owl hybrid and their Vice Akaashi, a tawny owl, among his best friends.  
  
In contrast, Kuroo thought of the _snakes from Nohebi_ with less nice words, not least because the snake hybrids tended to literally spray their venom over the field during a match.  
  
The other three teams from the other prefectures were _Shiratorizawa, the eagles_ , _Inarizaki, a team of fox_ _hybrids_ and _Karasuno_ , who had filled a team with _crows_.  
  
After Nekoma had competed against Karasuno for the first time a good two months ago, Kenma and Karasuno's Chibi-chan had become almost inseparable and Kuroo was amazed every time how often Kenma assumed his Balinese form and how his tail in the presence of the shrimp almost naturally wrapped around Hinata's waist.  
  
In contrast to the Tokyo hybrids, the Karasuno crows didn't seem to hide their abilities and so the first thing they had seen of them at the time was a head of orange hair and two large black wings that had pushed into their field of vision .  
After that, it was only a matter of time until all the other Karasuno players gradually changed into their animal form in particularly intense moments of the game and soon the air had shimmered with sweat, energy and black crow feathers.  
  
Although - _all_ Karasuno players wasn't the correct expression here, because by the end of the last set a certain blond middle blocker hadn't even made a face or yet alone a move to change.  
The tall lanky boy hadn't let his walls down for a single second and even after Kuroo had spoken to him directly about it, all he got in response was a brusque click of the tongue and a bored "I don't know why this would be your business."  
  
From that moment on Kuroo's hunting instinct was awakened and even if Yaku had been teasing him with it for weeks, he couldn't help but imagine what it would be like when Blondie would finally unfold his wings and stare at him with his annoyed golden eyes.  
And considering that they would visit Karasuno again in a few days, Kuroo couldn't help but watch Yaku, grinning broadly, as he kicked Lev in the buttocks.  
  
This was going to get very interesting.

"Well, if that isn't my very favorite crow-boy!", whistled Kuroo as he strutted off the bus three days later and was greeted by the Karasuno team.  
  
Approved middle blocker wrinkled his nose with a sigh and seemed to reconsider all of his life decisions when Hinata, next to him, fell around Kenma's neck with an unmistakable squeak.  
Immediately Kuroo had to avoid two wings and just saw Kenma purring curling his tail around Hinata's waist before the little middle blocker pulled his best friend out of sight.  
  
Daichi gave his smallest flock member a worried look, apparently still not entirely convinced that a cat and crow couple was a good idea.  
Since Hinata had showed up hand in hand with Kenma in Nekoma a week after their first match and Kuroo had to endure threatening phone calls from Daichi for 10 days straight, the third grader seemed to have calmed down a bit.  
  
As if he had read Kuroo's mind, Daichi smiled briefly and nodded in the direction in which Kenma and Hinata had disappeared and mumbled something about "The youth nowadays."  
"Yes, the youth." Kuroo grinned, but insisted on winking at Tsukishima at the end of the sentence.  
The blond boy closed his eyes, pressed two fingers against the bridge of his nose and made a face as if he had just been told, that he would have to share a room with Hinata and Kageyama for all his life.  
  
Kuroo had already found out that much in their short time together - if you wanted to get under Tsukishima's skin, you just had to leave him in the presence of the monster duo long enough and sooner or later he would either commit murder or show Kuroo his wings.  
Knowing this in the back of his mind and ignoring the possibility of an imminent murder, Kuroo fixed the remaining part of the duo, which was still staring after Kenma and Hinata.

While the rest of the team was greeted by Karasuno, Kuroo strolled over to Kageyama inconspicuously and stood next to the setter, who looked at him with confused eyes.  
“Setter-kun.”, Kuroo began, a voice like asking about the weather, “say, I think you are an honest soul. I have the feeling your Megane-kun has a few problems opening up to you, could that be true? "  
  
Kageyama, still a reflection of sheer confusion, shrugged his shoulders and then said, “Well I think so. He doesn't talk to me very much, he always says - ", he straightened up and made a face like Tsukishima, _“”If I have to spend a second longer in your presence, I'm afraid that your stupidity will infect me, so stay away from me.""_  
Kuroo really had to try hard not to laugh out loud, because he could absolutely picture how Tsukishima would run away with a wrinkled nose as soon as Hinata and Kageyama came close to him.  
  
Grinning with pleasure, Kuroo put an arm around Kageyama's shoulder, which was commented by Kageyama with an overwhelmed puff and he began to ask in a low voice.  
“Well, that's a shame, isn't it? Don't you think that the structure in your team would be much better if Megane-kun loosened up a bit?"  
Kageyama made a face as if Kuroo had just asked about the fourth root from 1340 and opened his mouth a few times without a sound leaving him, while Kuroo nodded slowly before answering his question himself.  
“Yes, that would be better, because how should a team function effectively if not all members contribute equally. So it would be good if we both, together with Chibi-chan, could get your grumpy blonde to open up."  
  
For a brief moment Kageyama seemed to want to question his words, apparently not fully understanding why exactly Kuroo was interested, but then shrugged again and nodded.  
"Sounds fine. But as I said - Stingyshima stays away from us outside of the volleyball field, so how is that supposed to work?"  
"That, my dear friend, I'll explain to you right away.", Kuroo grinned and he lifted his head to find Tsukishima's appraising look on himself.  
The blonde raised an eyebrow questioningly and Kuroo wiggled his own eyebrows before pulling Kageyama's arm in the other direction.

"Ball is coming! Noya this is for you!"  
"TO ME!", Karasunos Libero threw himself on the floor with a roll and Kuroo heard Yaku laughing in amusement in the background, before the ball was spiked directly at them by the bald guy and Yaku could just lunge before the ball hit the ground with a loud “Bang”.  
Karasuno's coaching duo had made themselves comfortable next to Nekomata and all three seemed to be engrossed in an animated conversation, although none of the men took their eyes off the game.  
  
Behind Kuroo, Lev jumped into the air to catch a spike from Hinata and missed the ball by a good eight inches - but not in height, because the ball just whistled past Lev to the left and the gray-haired boy stared confused at his own hands.  
Yaku moaned a bit about the fact that Lev "was already a fucking cat and his reflexes were still those of a rusted watering can" and Kuroo gave the first year a pitying look when Yaku stood cursing next to Lev and the two-meter guy shriveled up to a tiny mouse.  
  
The serve was again with Karasuno and Kuroo's grin turned into that of a big cat when Kageyama stepped behind the line and apparently prepared one of his famous jump serves, as always.  
  
Hinata, Tsukishima and their ace were now at the net and Kuroo could hear the wheels turn in the blond's head as Kuroo gave him an exaggeratedly amused grin and wink - it was almost as if the boy already suspected that something was going to happen, because when all of a sudden Kageyama's serve crashed into the net with full force between Hinata and Tsukishima, only the orange-haired middle blocker jumped up with both wings spread out in fright and snapped at Kageyama.  
  
Tsukishima, however, mockingly raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips, a smug smile on his face and even if he said absolutely nothing, he shouted a know-it-all “Oh, and that's all you have to offer?” into Kuroo's face and Kuroo had to bite his tongue so as not to gasp.  
Instead he gave the blond a crooked grin and bared his teeth defiantly.  
  
Lev next to them was jiggling excitedly, because now it was Yamamoto's turn to beat the serve on the opposing side and be it due to Lev's enormous size or Yamamoto's boredom, but meanwhile bets were being made in Nekoma how often Yamamoto's serve would hit Lev's head within one game.  
The undisputed record was 13 times, but as focused as the boy with the blond mohawk looked now, he seemed to want to beat this counter in the current game.  
  
With a slap, the ball flew over Kuroo's head and he just saw Daichi jump to the side before the ball was accepted by their Libero and sent to Kageyama.  
"TO ME!", Hinata yelled and a second later the little player was flying over their heads, wings spread wide and Kuroo could swear that he've heard a love sigh from Kenma.  
  
But this time he was faster and Chibi's Spike clapped his fingers and landed, absolutely accurate, in the face of Tsukishima.  
  
Kuroo noticed his mistake exactly at the moment when the blonde went down cursing and held his nose.  
  
Kuroo quickly ducked under the net and kneeled next to the middle blocker before he was literally pushed away and his place was taken by the always worried shadow of Tsukishima.  
"Tsukki! Everything ok?! “, the boy squealed and Kuroo wanted to say that he was definitely not “ok” if a ball had just slapped him in the face, when a sturdy wing of the boy pushed him back and for a very short moment Yamaguchi looked at him out of warning green eyes before immediately turning back to Tsukishima.  
These guys really were a bloody swarm, Kuroo thought, but immediately before Karasuno's manager could step onto the field with the first aid kit, the blond boy straightened up again and dusted his pants, an unamused frown in his face.  
  
"I'm fine.", His gaze flicked to Kuroo, "the ball was probably not blocked properly. It would probably have hurt a lot with one of Date Tech's blocks."  
Kuroo didn't know whether to laugh or cry indignantly and Yaku patted him with a theatrical “Ouch. _That hurt_.” on the shoulder.  
  
As if the misdirected ball had triggered something in Karasuno's team, you could now see excited fluttering wings somewhere on the field after almost every pass and as if in a frenzy the wave spilled over to Nekoma and before Kuroo knew it, everyone except him and Yaku had adopted their hybrid form.

Kai's tail lashed back and forth tightly in the opposite direction to his relaxed expression, and Yamamoto's striped ears flattened warning when Kageyama served for the second time that day.  
This time, however, the ball slipped unhindered to Nekoma's side, and it was only thanks to Yaku's reflexes that they kept the ball in play.  
On Karasuno's side, Tsukishima, the bald guy and their ace went in watch out, Kenma's pass was perfect as always and Lev took to the skies, ready to make the match point.  
  
Kuroo _saw_ the jump block, he _saw_ how they rose to stop Nekoma and he was about to jump along to push the ball over there if necessary, when he froze on the spot.  
  
Lev's Spike smashed over there, directly into the hands of Tsukishima, who had jumped so much higher than usual and Kuroo only caught the ball coming up on their side - because in front of him, with wings spread wide and a smug grin on his face, Tsukishima landed on the floor.  
  
"Whoops," the blonde muttered. "How careless of me."  
  
Kuroo's mouth was open, but _by God_ , he couldn't care less when he saw the shiny green and black feathers that stretched over Tsukishima's entire back.  
Completely casually Kuroo felt his ears grow and when the next moment his bushy tail whipped through the air behind him, Tsukishima gave him another smug smile.  
  
"Equal rights for everyone, Neko-san." He chuckled softly and Kuroo swore at that moment that he would do anything to hear Tsukishima laugh again.  
Hunting instinct be damned, this boy had thrown him off course with terrifying ease and it was absolutely not in Kuroo's interest to let the boy go again so quickly.  
  
"Mhm Neko. I could get used to that nickname, Birdy”, he purred and Yaku behind him made a choking noise.  
Tsukishima raised his eyebrows one last time in amusement before straightening his glasses and stretching his shiny wings.  
"Maine Coone-Cat, huh? I should have known that you would have to exaggerate again."  
Kuroo whipped his tail, the hidden compliment made his ears twitch and he suppressed the urge to purr very loudly and completely inappropriately.  
This was neither the time nor the place, and if he were lucky, Yamamoto would be on his phone fast enough to record it and have Black Mail material for forever.

Instead, he gave Tsukishima another deep look and mumbled, barely audible: “That's what the only one who has colored feathers says. I guess the Tasmanian-crow? "  
The blonde wrinkled his nose and then backed away, ready for another serve from Kageyama.  
When the ball was saved by Yaku again and Kuroo jumped into the air to score, he was in no way surprised when Tsukishima was suddenly at eye level and literally took the ball out of his hand.  
"Great-Billed crow." said Tsukishima drawn out and the way he checked Kuroo from head to toe elicited a soft purr from the older man.  
  
 _"Oh God_.", that came from Yaku, "pull yourself together!" He pointed to Lev. "There are children present."  
  
Lev's outraged response was drowned out in the loud laughter of Nekoma's team, and when they got on the team bus hours later, Kuroo couldn't help but wrap his tail possessively around Tsukishima's leg for a second.  
The fact that the blonde let the gesture happen without comment should later become the basis for Kuroo's absolutely helpless flirtation with the middle blocker.  
  
However he had managed to convince Tsukishima to give him a chance with puns over crows, owls and cats, but at the training camp a month later, Kenma wasn't the only one who could wrap his tail around a person's waist.


End file.
